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Sex Education: Season 4 Review

Sex Education: Season 4 Review


The following is a non-spoiler review for all eight episodes of Sex Education Season 4, which streams on Netflix beginning September 21.

The Sex Education gang returns – well, most of them – for a bittersweet, rewarding fourth and final season filled with farce, folly, empathy, and poignancy. Of course, if you’ve followed Netflix’s teen sex romp this entire time you know the drill: Just about everyone is going to be the stupidest and most stubborn version of themselves until they learn a lesson, at which point the show, shucking its own tone, will make you cry.

Everyone has a cellphone but plot will dictate that they don’t know how to use them to communicate properly, providing us with mass misunderstandings and ample aggravation. But – hang on! – the ensemble is so lovable that you’ll overlook the frustrating parts and stick with it until the series leaves you with, more often than not, glowing, beautiful closure. The small miracle of Sex Education is that it can be a cringe-comedy circus until it levels you with its pureness of heart and thoughtful inclusivity. The root of the series is people dealing with trauma and loneliness so whenever the dust settles on the absurdity – of which there is plenty – you’ll always find a deeper, compassionate resolution.

Getting this out of the way up top: Patricia Allison, Mikael Persbrandt, and Tanya Reynolds aren’t back for season 4. That’s Ola, her father Jakob, and Lily. Which is both easily explainable given how season 3 ended, with the question of baby Joy’s paternity, but also a bit of a bummer since it was interesting to explore Otis (Asa Butterfield) and Ola’s burgeoning step-sibling relationship. What this means though is Gillian Anderson’s Jean has very different, newborn-driven story avenues to explore, including a big one with her flightier younger sister Joanna (Lisa McGrillis). It all works and it actually explores some darker stuff from Jean’s past that we may not have gotten otherwise.

Given the large cast and our own personal hopes and dreams as fans for their future, there’s no way the ending of this series will satisfy all our whims. (It didn’t for me, that much I’ll admit.) But what is here, both expected and unexpected, is still pretty damn great. Otis and Ola may not to remain as quirky kin but Jean’s storyline – being an overwhelmed single mother starting a new radio sex therapist gig – helps enrich Otis’ final-season stretch. Sure, he’s got tons of Maeve (Emma Mackey) drama, with her being overseas in a writing program and him making every mistake you can make with a long-distance relationship, but just about every aspect of his life is under strain as we learn a lot more about how Jean’s nature, and mental instability, has effected Otis’ views on relationships. Remember, everything that starts as a teen-movie cliché wraps itself up nicely with a bow of admittance, acceptance, and healing.

Since the show never abandons its original premise even when the characters undergo significant changes, Otis, Eric (future Doctor Who star Little Friend) and other notable Moordale students all start at Cavendish College, a student-led higher-learning facility that’s free and unprejudiced in all the ways their other (now closed) school was stifling. It comes as a huge shock to the system for our regulars to see everyone be kind, open, and progressive – and Otis gets delivered a second jolt when he discovers Cavendish already has an in-house student sex counselor, O (Thaddea Graham), who’s aggressively good at her “job.” Meanwhile Eric finds himself in paradise, in a school where he feels supported and emboldened. So much so that he finds his way into the popular clique and begins to have less in common with Otis.